Welcoming the 'bigs'
What a perfect marriage. Maryland needed some big guys, and there they are -- 6-10 Jordan Williams and 6-8 James Padgett.
Maryland unveiled the freshman post players today at media day. Williams is the bulkier of the two -- he said he weighs about 260 (down from his high school playing weight of 273). Padgett said he goes about 225.
Nobody was talking much about scoring from the big guys today. But everyone had rebounding on their minds.
Some quotes:
James Padgett: "I'm very excited that I get the opportunity to play as soon as possible.
My hard work should work determine how much I play and the need for bigs should determine how much I play."
Jordan Williams: "They expect a lot out of us, not necessarily huge things. But they expect us to contribute right away. We have size that we haven’t add for a couple years.
I’m probably a pretty good low-post player."
Greivis Vasquez: "We beat Georgia Tech when they had all these big guys with Dave Neal being our center. Now we have the tools that we needed. But nothing is guaranteed."
Adrian Bowie: "We have some bigs now that can rebound and can make moves in the post. It helps us out a lot. Teams are geared for our guards, so having big men who can score makes us even more lethal."
Comments
You know it!!! Terps are gonna rock this year!!
Posted by: Paul | October 15, 2009 6:29 PM
No reason not to be optimistic. Who knows, maybe one (or both?) of these guys will surprise us with his scoring ability, in addition to rebounding and defense. Or maybe Dino Gregory will step up and perform for long stretches the way the he did in spots last year.
What we do know is that we have some bulk inside, our back court is deep and talented, we have althleticism on the wing, and we have one of the best coaches in the land.
Fear the Turtle!
Posted by: Smitty | October 15, 2009 7:18 PM
to me it's imperative that the 2 freshman are able to play significant minutes. the terps are a much better team if milbourne can play small forward.
Posted by: fkterp | October 15, 2009 7:53 PM
I think alot of people are sleeping on Dino - from what we saw at the end of last year......I think he will break out as a force on this team defensively and in other areas.
Posted by: Eric - Winston-Salem | October 15, 2009 11:39 PM
Still not near deep enough in the frontcourt.
Maybe Goins or Kim can play some minutes at the 4, but likely Milbourne will still play at least half his minutes at power forward.
Thats ok, though, because Hayes needs to play big minutes this year. He showed ability to create off the dribble in the final few games last year. That pushes Mosely and Tucker to the 3.
Posted by: onceawarrior | October 16, 2009 1:28 AM
When did Maryland become lethal?
----FROM JEFF-----
I took notice of that quote as well. Maybe Adrian has been watching a lot of action films and liked that word.
Posted by: Carnell | October 16, 2009 12:35 PM
Carnell,
Terps BB has always been lethal, just not consistent enough. To prove my point: 1) just last month, Lindy's magazine listed Maryland BB as one of the top ten team in the last decade; and 2) Terps was the only team beat the teams played for NCAA's championship game last year. Do some research before you comment. It makes you not look smart.
Posted by: CHL | October 16, 2009 2:35 PM